The Drum Beat 630 - Communication and Change News and Issues

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630

The Drum Beat - 630 - Communication and Change News and Issues

THIS ISSUE INCLUDES:
STRATEGIC THINKING:	Afghan Media, Deepening Participation, Citizen Voice
MATERIALS:	Hunger Index, School Design, Advocacy Tools
NEED HELP?	Advertise Job Vacancies
EXPERIENCES:	Video Letters, Ending Sexual Violence, Mobiles for Change

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STRATEGIC THINKING
1. The Media of Afghanistan: The Challenges of Transition by David Page and Shirazuddin Siddiqi
This policy briefing: (i) provides an overview of how Afghanistan's media landscape has been transformed over the past decade; (ii) examines the effects of this transformation on Afghanistan's culture and politics; (iii) looks at the status and pressures facing journalism in the country; (iv) examines the role of donors and the implications of a reduction in such support; (v) examines the shortage of independent national media and the challenges faced by Radio Television Afghanistan (RTA); and (vi) looks to the future. [BBC Media Action, Mar 2012]

2. HIV Prevention Among Adult Women: Opportunities for Social and Behavior Change Communication by Warren Parker
This study is intended to inform strategic responses for addressing HIV prevention through social and behaviour change communication (SBCC) among adult women in the southern Africa region. Participants in the study emphasised the need to transform HIV knowledge into action through greater levels of community engagement, including involvement in problem-solving. They were confident that by working together, they could formulate locally appropriate strategies and solutions, noting that emergent groups, mainly among women, were already doing this. [C-Change, Jun 2012]

3. Early Childhood Development and Disability
This paper aims to lay the foundation for a long-term strategic and collaborative process aimed at improving the developmental outcomes, participation, and protection of young children with disabilities. Amongst the recommendations: involvement of children with disabilities and their families in early childhood development (ECD) activities, as well as use of diverse communication channels, including mass and community media, traditional media (such as puppetry, poetry, song and storytelling, and interpersonal communication) to eliminate stigma and prejudice and to promote positive attitudes towards children with disabilities and their families. [World Health Organization (WHO) and United Nations Children's Fund (UNICEF), Jan 2012]

4. Deepening Participation and Improving Aid Effectiveness through Media and ICTs: A Practical Manual Translating Lessons Learned into Daily Practice by Patrick Kalas and Christoph Spurk
After more than 10 years of support in the realm of information and communication technologies (ICTs) for development, the Swiss Agency for Development and Cooperation (SDC) has looked back to review project reports, studies, and evaluations to distil lessons learned. This operational manual summarises these findings and makes suggestions on how ICTs and media should be used, in combination, both in classical development programmes (health, rural development, and climate change), and for enhancing governance and accountability. [Jan 2011]

5. Citizen Voice and State Accountability: Towards Theories of Change that Embrace Contextual Dynamics by Fletcher Tembo
This paper uses a critical analysis of citizen voice and accountability (CV&A) cases to examine how CV&A happens in different governance contexts. According to the author, CV&A project interventions produce and reproduce diverse outcomes that are not amenable to linear models of theories of change (ToCs), which are "starting to be viewed as...a key part of what constitutes 'rigour' in impact evaluations." The analytical framework used in this paper draws on the tools of outcome mapping (OM) and political economy analysis (PEA). [Overseas Development Institute, Mar 2012]

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MATERIALS
6. 2012 Global Hunger Index
This report makes policy recommendations to improve food security. "Greater collaboration is needed among government ministries as well as with communities, civil society, and the private sector in policy design, implementation, and monitoring." For example, it is suggested that training should be made available to facilitate civil society organisations' use of the May 2012 United Nations Committee on World Food Security guidelines, which are designed to help countries establish laws and policies to better govern land, fishery, and forest tenure rights. [International Food Policy Research Institute (IFPRI), Welthungerhilfe, and Concern Worldwide, Oct 2012]

7. Reconceptualizing School Design: Learning Environments for Children and Youth by Laura Healey Malinin and Rosie Parnell
"Nations around the world are re-examining the idea of school as both a physical place and as a set of practices related to learning and development. As 'school' broadens its scope in response to paedagogical developments and is reconstructed in the face of climate change, resource scarcity, and global economies, the field of school design is challenged to respond with appropriate processes, spaces and places." This resource examines school environments in the context of changing educational goals, pedagogical practices, and design processes. [Children, Youth and Environments, Jan 2012]

8. Getting it Right: A Journalists' Guide to Conducting Community Radio Debate by Hakeem Abdul Buza
This guide highlights the role of radio producers and moderators in reaching rural communities, recognising that they, too, can set the agenda for news and debate on radio, thereby positively contributing to Uganda's development. It looks at the broadcast environment and media legal context in Uganda and then guides community broadcasters through the process of choosing formats, producing a radio debate, preparing debaters, and eliciting audience involvement. [Panos Eastern Africa with support from Deepening Democracy Programme, Jan 2011]

9. Advocacy Toolkit from the Union for International Cancer Control (UICC)
This toolkit aims to respond to some of the challenges for cancer advocates in influencing change in public perception, practice, and policy. Amongst other things, it includes a series of 15 "evidence sheets" that summarise the supporting data for actions that are aligned with achieving the World Cancer Declaration targets. The purpose is to help advocates meet the challenge of convincing governments that proven cost-effective solutions exist to reduce the cancer burden. [Jan 2012]

10. A Guide to Voluntary and Humanitarian Work by Adi Walker, Bryan Walker, MSc, PhD, and Richard Walker
This report makes policy recommendations to improve food security. This book is written to help people become aid workers, to develop their careers during the first cycle of employment, and to build the capacity of those involved in preparing for emergencies and alleviating disasters. [Oct 2009]

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Advertise Your Vacant Job Posts through The CI

The CI provides immediate access to 75,000 people in the network, and these people often pass job opportunities around their networks and contacts. You can immediately post your jobs (within an online payment system) here or contact [email protected] for assistance.

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EXPERIENCES
11. Global Video Letters (GVL)
GVL works with local community activists, non-governmental organisations (NGOs), and youth to use film to inspire social change. The initiative also seeks to teach youth the skills they need to tell their own stories about what they see, experience, and want to share with the world. GVL workshops focus on human rights concepts, social advocacy, and the art of filmmaking and encourage participants to engage in their communities and then engage with the world.

12. We Will Speak Out Coalition: Working Together to End Sexual Violence
This coalition of like-minded faith-based groups, international aid agencies, and an alliance of individuals are committed to ending sexual violence (SV). The coalition maintains a pledge on its website for individuals and organisation to sign on to speaking out against SV and the marginalisation of those who have experienced it. The pledge includes such actions as mobilising leadership, ensuring law enforcement, and finding lasting solutions. [Tearfund]

13. Between Young People. Communication and HIV - Entre Jóvenes. Comunicación y VIH - Argentina
This network seeks to strengthen communication for the prevention of HIV/AIDS, promote freedom of expression, and the right to information and healthcare, with the participation of young people and their expression by using their own video, radio, graphic, and web productions. [United Nations Educational, Scientific, and Cultural Organisation (UNESCO) and Las Otras Voces (The Other Voices)]

14. Mobile for Development (M4D)
M4D is a not-for-profit technology initiative designed to help development organisations leverage the ubiquity of mobile phones to increase the effectiveness of their social change work in sectors including healthcare, education and training, livelihoods and agriculture, sustainable development and the environment, and rural finance. [ZMQ Software Systems]

15. Maria's Children
Maria's Children is an art studio where Russian boys and girls who are orphans from state boarding schools come to make art, receive therapy, learn skills, and have the opportunity to work on preparing to integrate themselves into mainstream society.

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This issue of The Drum Beat was written by Kier Olsen DeVries.

The Drum Beat is the email and web network of The Communication Initiative Partnership - Partners: ANDI, BBC Media Action, Bernard van Leer Foundation, Breakthrough, Calandria, DFID, FAO, Fundación Nuevo Periodismo Iberoamericano (FNPI), Inter-American Development Bank, Johns Hopkins Bloomberg School of Public Health Center for Communication Programs, MISA, Oxfam Novib, PAHO, The Panos Institute, Puntos de Encuentro, The Rockefeller Foundation, SAfAIDS, Sesame Workshop, Soul City, STEPS International, UNAIDS, UNDP, UNICEF, USAID, The Wellcome Trust, World Health Organization (WHO), W.K. Kellogg Foundation.

The Drum Beat seeks to cover the full range of communication for development activities. Inclusion of an item does not imply endorsement or support by The Partners.

Chair of the Partners Group: Garth Japhet, Founder, Soul City [email protected]

Executive Director: Warren Feek [email protected]

The Editor of The Drum Beat is Kier Olsen DeVries.

Please send additional project, evaluation, strategic thinking, and materials information on communication for development at any time. Send to [email protected]

The Drum Beat seeks to cover the full range of communication for development activities. Inclusion of an item does not imply endorsement or support by The Partners.

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